Clean Water

Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the foundation of health, economic vitality, and recreation for millions of Ohioans. Lake Erie is the shallowest, warmest, and most biologically productive of all the Great Lakes.

Ohio’s Great Lake supports one of the largest freshwater commercial fisheries in the world and the largest sport fishery in the Great Lakes, producing more fish for human consumption than the other four Great Lakes combined.

LAKE ERIE BASIN

The Lake Erie basin – all lands that drain to the Lake – is nearly 11,700 square miles and sustains more than 1,500 species of plants and animals. The land includes:

beech-maple, oak, hemlock, and hardwood forests

button bush swamps

glacial kettle lakes

wet woods and prairies, small ponds and marshes, fens, vernal pools, and bogs

rare oak savannas

lakeshore grasslands

sand dunes

Threatened, endangered and rare species located within these extraordinary and unparalleled ecosystems include:

Kirtland’s warbler

bald eagle

lark sparrow

four-toed salamander

Lake Erie water snake

the Karner blue butterfly

Skinner’s foxglove

beach pea

sea rocket

purple sand grass

wild lupine

Showy Lady’s Slipper orchid

Lake Erie, along with the many tributaries that feed into it, supplies drinking water to 13 million people in the greater region and roughly three million Ohioans. Each year more than seven million people flock to Ohio’s portion of the Lake Erie basin, including Kelleys, South Bass (better known as Put-in-Bay) and Middle Bass Islands, to recreate and reconnect with nature and family.

As a result, more than 123,000 jobs are sustained, netting more than $3.7 billion in wages annually. Tourism, travel, and sport fishing contribute more than $14 billion a year in revenue to Ohio’s economy and more than $1.8 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.

THREATS TO OUR GREAT LAKE

Invasive species like the zebra mussel are crowding out fish and wildlife. Antiquated sewer systems and failing septic tanks dump raw, untreated sewage that can make the waters of our beaches unsafe to swim.

Agricultural runoff is a key culprit in fueling harmful algal blooms and the development and expansion of Lake Erie dead zones (areas of depleted oxygen that prevent fish from thriving there).

Years of industrial pollution have lead to fish consumption advisories and toxic hotspots. Sprawling development has degraded water quality and wildlife habitat in streams and on the lakeshore. Unfettered water use can shrink critical wildlife habitat and concentrate pollutants.

These problems are manageable and effective solutions exist. It is time to use them. Every day we wait the problems grow worse and the solutions more costly.